Čiurlionis: Oh, My Dear Mother

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911) composed as he painted: in symbols, colours, and quiet revelations. His preludes breathe the same air as his visionary canvases, where Lithuanian folklore, mysticism, and nature fuse into a single, luminous world. In the intimate VL-series piano works, gently chromatic lines unfold like folk melodies remembered from childhood—fragments his mother once sang in the wooden house at Druskininkai. A sequence of variation cycles on songs of nature, love, life, and motherhood follows, each crafted with the simplicity of oral tradition yet shaded with an increasingly modern harmonic language.

In these 35 pieces, pianist Geert Callaert enters Čiurlionis’ dual universe of sound and vision with unforced tenderness and structural poise. His interpretations illuminate the inner axis where preludes become landscapes, variations become memories, and chromatic whispers become the painter’s brushstrokes translated into tone. This recording offers not only a rare traversal of a still-undiscovered repertoire, but also an invitation into one of the 20th century’s most singular artistic minds—fragile, searching, and incandescent.